Gundam Age Generation 3: Kio's Saga (Hard Mode)
by verifiaman
Summary: A story that wasn't needed or wanted, but I made anyway. The final member of the Asuno lineage must embrace his destiny and finish the Vagan once and for all. But for many, things were different. Things had changed. After all, since when was Second Moon so close to earth?
1. Prologue (AG 164)

Everywhere you looked, you saw flat, square houses, made up of mud and clay. The water was not safe to drink, and it wasn't common for one person to use to water for drinking, before or sometimes after they saw someone use said water as their toilet. Thankfully the people's bodies had developed a resistance to these disgusting conditions, but for many, Vagan was a tomb, one that they had no choice but to die in, slowly and painfully.

Long ago, the previous leader of Vagan, Fezarl Ezelcant proposed a plan to take back the Earth Sphere, to take revenge on the ones below that forsook them. Every Vagan knew of what happened, the 'Mars Birthday' event the elders called it before communications with Earth ceased. The aplomb was plentiful, the desire for vengeance so great that the elder Vagans described the climate as a 'group of predators ready to pounce, their mouths leaking saliva while their faces were twisted with glee at the thoughts of revenge.' Vagan was a world of death, a giant coffin that kept it's occupants perpetually ill, and a living representation of humanity's curiosity, and their own pride getting the better of them, and the consequences that followed

But one 12 year old Lu Anon remembered things differently. One night everything was normal. Her brother put her to bed and she slowly drifted off to sleep. The next morning, everything changed. She didn't remember the Earth Sphere being all white. She didn't remember the Colonies being on Earth, her neighbors talking as though they didn't care about the Earth Sphere, or the fact she could go outside! But most of all, she never remembered the Second Moon being close to this white, icy planet.

She could see it from outside her's and Deens house, her brother going along his merry way as he went to buy food from the market. It was the weirdest thing! Her brother kept saying that planet was Earth, her neighbors kept saying that planet was Earth, but that couldn't be! Earth was a beautiful, vibrant planet filled with greenery, blue waters, _clean_ water, and bright skies. The time of day changed without the use of the Second Moon's artificial sky, and there was food that was plentiful! What she saw above was nothing but an icy ball that radiated death. From a young age, Lu had a great sense of empathy, able to feel what others around her thought, reading the emotions of people whenever they tried to lie to her, and even being influenced by said emotions. This icy planet that was supposed to be Earth was radiating such emotions, negative emotions that bought her to tears.

"Lu!" She heard her brother yell as she broke down on the ground crying. "Lu what's wrong?!" He put her into his arms to console her, but he couldn't do anything; no one could. She could feel it in her core, this sense of wrongness that permeated the world above and then everything around her. Where was she?

Advanced Generation 164. It was a new ice age, one that had started nearly a century ago. There wasn't an ounce of greenery to be found no matter where you looked, whether from the ground or from above, the earth was completely frozen over. Aside from the many domes and rocket like objects sticking out from the ground like grotesque protrusions, the only other evidence that life still existed here were the many ships on the glacial sea. They basically plowed the land as it were, melting the ice, shattering it into pieces, or just breaking through it with massive drills, these ships ferried people from protrusion to protrusion, acting as the only safe way humans could get to their little shelters, today's generation suffering from the folly of their ancestors.

The Colony Nations War was to blame for this travesty. Back when the earth was green and robots towered over buildings, their ancestors fought, and fought, and fought, over things many today would call trivial. The people of space, these Colonists, began to develop a sense of superiority over the planet below, feeling their ties to Earth hindered them, and that the government at the time prevented them from being truly independent and free. One by one, these ideas of superiority and independence spread at a rate some former Colonists would say like a virus, and soon enough the colonies began to demand autonomy, reactivating the mobile suit military program to act as their tools of destruction when the governments of the planet below refused and rejected their calls for independence and denied any possibility of autonomy. This stubbornness on both sides ignited a war that eclipsed any conflict worse than any mankind had ever experienced. Many today wouldn't even know what the war was fought over, but It did, and It knew a lot more than anyone alive today ever could. If you asked some random elderly man off the streets today what words like 'Europe' or 'America' meant, the best you'd get was that you were using Europe as shorthand for the Advanced European Union. Many even think that maps of the seven continents were nothing but something from a fantasy novel, and even if the world wasn't a giant icicle, fantasy is what those maps might as well be. 30 colonies. 30 of these monstrosities, the vessels that carried humanity's hopes, fell to the earth, signifying the end; the of the A.D. Era, the end of the Silver Chalice Treaty that was secretly being formed ,the end of the mobile suits as humanity knew them, and basically, the end of the world as humanity knew it. It was only thanks to the durability of the Colonies, that humanity was able to survive, and it was thanks to the will of whatever deities that existed that the planet wasn't knocked out of orbit. Communications were intact between the crashed vessels, the ones that landed in water were fine...for the most part, and the architecture and infrastructure for most of them was intact, almost as if there wasn't a crash from orbit. It hated to attribute anything to the people on this iceball, but their ancestors knew how to build a Colony, moreso than anyone from Vagan.

However, a problem came up regarding the survivors. The 30 colonies could only hold 12 billion in total, and they had a total 1.2 billion living in them. The population of surviving humans that were still alive...was 56 billion, leaving just a mere 11 billion to belt it into the Colonies. However, more problems arose. Like any post-apocalyptic scenario, there were major geological changes and permanent alterations to the planet's weather patterns. The pollution that had formed from decades of extensive Mobile Suit usage and production along with the Colony Nations War and the fuel from the Colonies crashing into the planet had reduced the planet's atmosphere to a toxic wasteland whose radiation levels were worse than anything in the past. Even now, in A.G. 164, It could detect that the raidiaton was still going strong, in every water molecule, in every snowflake. It couldn't _blame_ the idiot Earthnoids; there was no possible way anyone at the time could predict how utterly devastating and deadly the fallout would be..

Of the 56 billion that survived the colony crashes, only around 700,000 were able to make it into the Colonies alive, and of those only 33,000 were considered clean enough to be integrated with the populace. Oh if only they had the radiation detection and cleaning technology that Vagan had at the time, but It supposed that being so backwards, it was the best they could do. Back on Vagan, the people that made It would have at least had the mercy, the common _decency_ to spare those poor people from such a cruel fate by bringing them to the Eternal Sleep. Death did not come to those people swiftly that was for sure, and it would come _excruciatingly_ slowly to these little ants holed up in their hills on this iceball, so It figured that hey, why not give the ancestors of those cruel humans who subjected their own people to a cold death the same treatment? And It the perfect Colony to start this rampage at was Colony 22-44Z, home to the town of Oliver Notes, and officially belonging to the former country of Scandinavia. It was going to rain death upon this Colony, and succeed at the missions that It's predecessors had failed at time and time again: and what were these tasks?

1:The destruction of the Asuno family who had so vexed It's creators and Vagan for so many decades.

2: To retrieve the AGE Device that the Asunos stole and bring it back to space.

3: To take revenge for It's predecessors who the Asunos and their allies destroyed.

And lastly and most importantly 4: To destroy the Asuno's little lapdogs, the Gundams, once and for all.

[This is LN-44 Orga-Cyclo en route to 22-44Z. I have an ETA of four hours at my current speed. No hostiles detected and as far as I know, I have eluded detection by Federation forces.] Not like they could do anything if they _could_ detect It anyways. After all, It was the top of the line in close quarters maritime combat. At just 26 feet tall, 32 feet wide, and 60 feet long, It had nothing on Gafran's height or power, but It made up for that and then some in speed and utility. It was a mixture of blues, reds, and cream-whites, it's main lower serpentine body being all blue with red eyes on it's sea-serpent like mouth with two jamming satellites on the top of it's head shaped like horns. The head and spiky, segmented neck of it's lower half took up the first 30 feet of It's length, and the latter 30 were the giant 'fins' at it's back took up the latter half. It's rounded, stumpy, legs extended its body 20 feet off the ground and it's feet were two large, 12 foot long pontoons equipped with red anti-grav engines on the bottom that let It fly above the waters, and the pontoons themselves only there just in case the anti-grav failed, as well as being storage containers for It's other modes.

But for It, It's most prized abilities in this form came from It's upper half. 40 feet tall, it had the appearance of a lean, wiry, yet muscular human male. It's pectorals, abdominals, triceps and etc were all dark blue and segmented, It's spine functioning as a power cable attached to It's lower half with a large, 8 foot long cream-white missile launcher attached to It's back, It's head was a large optical unit shaped like that of the mythical cyclops, surrounded by a large conch shaped helmet, protecting It's most important parts from harm. It's weaponry was perfect for taking out any marine or aerial ship the Federation could throw at It. It's right arm was a large, bright red heat sword, longer than the neck of It's lower half. The hilt was a circular heating system that kept the blade at a constantly high temperature, enough so that the sword produced a constant amount of scalding hot steam in this arctic water as It travelled to It's destination, steam hot enough that it could boil the flesh off of a human twenty feet away. And It's left arm...that was the most dangerous weapon it had, perfect for fighting the Gundams. [I'm coming for you Asunos...you and your pathetic mockeries!] But first, there was something It had to do...unfortunately [I'm diving underwater now...switching to Sea-Sniper mode.] It always helped to have some insurance, even if the methods of acquiring it were unsatisfactory to say the least, and if It's Creators were right, there was another Gundam in development somewhere on this Colony, far stronger than the last two. It didn't know what happened to the Gundam that took out the Magician's Eight, but It knew that the first Gundam was on this Colony along with probably this -hopefully theoretical- new unit. If It fell to the Gundams like It's predecessors, then at least It'd take them and the Colony down with It.


	2. Kio Asuno and his imaginary friend

The city of Oliver Notes wasn't a very large town, nor the most advanced one. It was a mostly hilly little hamlet filled with more nature than man, with a population of just 5000. There weren't that any military only roads- a requirement since even before the Colony Nations War- as Oliver Notes was recently built only 23 years ago. It's construction came a shock to many, paid for and overseen by retired Earth Federation commander Flit Asuno, who had faded into obscurity since the 2nd Vagan War. Where was he now? No one knew, not even his widow and daughter in law, who to this day grieved for her lost son.

For one 13 year old boy however, the exploits of the Asunos were nothing short of fascinating. Kio Hertz, sister of Wendy Hertz, was an odd young boy, and that oddness started from his hair, complexion and eyes. His family along with the rest of Oliver Notes had fair or mostly fair skin, blonde or bright red hair with the occasional freckled face. Kio's skin was a pinkish cream-white with a light tan he had since birth, though not as tan as some foreigners, his short hair a ruddy reddish-brown, and his eyes a bright blue. His face and frame were slim and delicate, in a different way compared to girls and other boys his age, and his eyes were narrower than others. He was intelligent, far too intelligent in some subjects like robotics and the piloting simulator at the arcades -and he was so good at the latter it was as though the information was hereditary- but he was worryingly abysmal in others, to the point that it was thought he had a severe learning disability. Piloting and gaming were second nature to him, and it was hard for him to learn anything else that didn't relate to those two.

He was definitely an odd odd boy, made odder by his insistence that his imaginary friend was real. As he laid in the grassy expanse of Oliver Notes, staring at the artificial sky above and wearing his green shirt and brown pants, he conversed with her about whatever randoms subject entered his mind. "Are you sure that's how many pixels there are? I can't see any." If you asked Kio what his supposedly 'invisible friend' looked and sounded like, his best description would be 'A girl-shaped purple blob with a Japanese accent', and when asked how in the world he knew what a Japanese accent sounded like, he would say 'his friend told him'. In fact, that would be his answer to a lot of questions regarding his friend.

"Decatrillion is _not_ a word! There's no way the artificial sky has that many pixels!" If you asked him what his friend's name was, he wouldn't tell you, even _if_ she told him. "Alright since you're soooo smart, tell me how clouds actually formed!" According to Kio, his friend held a lot of secrets, a _lot_ of secrets, and according to Kio she had him honorbound not to- in his own words- 'be a Wendy'. "What's _perceepeetateeon?_ Is that one of those nonsense 'Neeeehongooooo' words you keep talking about?" He clutched his forehead in pain and let out a yell, as if he had been punched. "OW, sorry!" She had been here since he could walk, according to Kio, and helped him through the many rough patches in his life that his family couldn't even begin to understand, mainly because neither he nor her could put what was happening to him into words. He could never truly understand what she was saying. Oh he could understand her words and if he wanted to repeat them out loud, but she had no voice, and the fact he could tell what accent she had was even more baffling to him.

"It's almost time for lunch." This was a skill that he had no idea how it worked that worked wonders when playing mission mode. He always knew the time, even when he wasn't consciously aware of the time, he'd be able to tell you the exact minutes if there wasn't a clock or phone around "How do you think mom's gonna cook today's meal?" It was Tuesday, and mom said he could choose whatever he and Wendy would eat on Tuesday's and Thursdays.

Kio let out a sigh at his friend's admonishment... as gentle as that hit to his head. "Oh come on, I didn't choose anything fattening!" He had a knack for foods that were high in fat or sugar...in fact that was the thing he ate the most, rarely any vegetables or healthy foods. His teeth rarely yellowed despite his 'diet', and he never got so much as a pimple on his body, and any fat could be ran off with a few hours of exercise. "Fine fine, I chose Tacos!" He could feel her glare on him, even as he closed his eyes. "...with fried chicken meat to go with the beef..." That glare again... "And the sauce on mine is the grease!" She could be so judgmental sometimes! It's not his fault that he had a high metabolism! With that and his stamina and pilting skills, it was like he was a superhuman! "Alright, alright! I'll go on a diet!" Shows what she knew. He had stashes of cupcakes and gummies she didn't know about!

He got up off the ground and headed home. It was always a mini challenge for him, to see how far he could go from home, just to see how tiny his little subdivision could get. As he climbed down the hill however, he noticed his friend stopped, which was never a good sign. "Is something wrong?" He turned to her and noticed she was staring to the west with a look of apprehension on her face. He didn't know how he was able to see that on her faceless, blobby head, but he knew. "...Are you sure?" At her frantic instructions he began to run down the hill, faster and faster. He didn't know why she wanted him to get that weird A pendant thing, but when she began to panic, he knew better than to question her.

The best way into the Colonies undetected was through the maintenance tunnels. Whether underwater or buried hundreds of feet underground, these were the hardest doors to crack...if you weren't a Vegan unit that was.

 _ **Access Denied**_

80 feet below the colder than arctic waters was a large, circular gate marked 'Maintenance Tunnel 4', a military transport tunnel going by the sides and amount of now disabled and destroyed weaponry lining it's sides. There were hundreds of rusted, destroyed wall-mounted turrets down here, never used for their intended purpose. These Colonies were armed to the teeth to prevent invasions from Mobile Armors or Mobile Suits, but the people of the past never even figured out how to get their aerial based mobile weaponry to work any farther than the ionosphere. Space or earth, there was no way at the time to get one to work satisfactory in the other environment.

[Oh come on!] It had spent a good 2 hours decrypting the Colony's security network, which was a hard task on it's own given the thing was made when global tensions were higher than they were today, and it was made worse by It's lack of experience using hands. It's alternative form was quite clunky for it to use; this form was bipedal, twice as tall as It's regular form, It's sword serving as the spine for It's skeleton, It's serpent head became it's pectorals, and the jaw It's abdominal section with the teeth on It's hands as claws. It's 'fins' had become It's legs and feet with actual fins on their sides blade-shaped fins that extended to It's three toed, reptilian feet, which had active jets keeping It aloft underwater as It hacked. They were thin -well, thin for It, the things were wider than a small cannon on one of the ships above- and It's arms were spiky and bulky, It's former sword arm now a regular arm, the scales on It's hand segmented, allowing water to pass through It's body better. It didn't know who had the bright idea to give It a hydroelectric generator, but the thing was a godsend! It's left arm had no hand, but instead a large, bulky, deep sea blue beam rifle half the size of a truck, with two large hydroelectric fans at the bottom of the gun, and two large vents on the side. The barrel was a foot long and a bright blue and made for sniper, and was the appropriate length too, with a gem at the end of the barrel to magnify the beam's power. It's head and neck had merged with the remaining parts of It's serpent neck, and the result was a horrifying lamprey creature, teeth and all, with It's original eye hidden in the mouth.

[Come on come on..] It _really_ wanted to surface and get out of this mode, but a contigency was needed when dealing with the Asunos; Gafran, Farsia, and the Magician's Eight, taught It that, but this form was just so unwieldy for It! This mode was made for two things: underwater combat and travel, and underwater stealth operations; that was it. It had feet in this form, but that was like saying a green tree on this ice ball was proof that life was still possible here outside the Colonies. It's pontoons were miles away, scanning for any underwater threats. That blasted first Asuno and his Gundam were still out there, and It did not want to fight a revenge filled old man in this environment. Oh how It missed feeling the water underneath It's _true_ feet, to feel the heat of It's sword yet again! [Almost there, almost there...]

 _ **Maintenance tunnel access granted.**_

Finally! It's eye turned into a tooth filled, crooked grin as the maintenance door opened. It's beautiful pontoons finally returned from their patrol, giving the all clear status. [Now hopefully...]

 _ **Records of entry have been deleted from the system.**_

[Yes!] Pre Advanced-Generation technology was as reliable as ever! As It began to propel itself into the tunnel, an alert began blaring on It's HUD, causing it to stop and turn around, waving It's gun. [It can't be!] The pontoons were supposed to report for any threats, what was- [Oh wait.] That wasn't It's threat radar. [Oh.] This was the _other_ radar. [Oooohohhh] The _special_ radar. [Interesting, interesting!] So that idiot Farsia didn't kill the last non-Asuno X-Rounder on this ball of ice. And best of all there were _two_ X-Rounders according to It's sensors! Well now It just felt stupid for freaking out like that! [Don't worry little X-Rounder, I'm coming for you...you and the Gundam!]


	3. The secret under Kio's house

His house was located on Kungsportsavenyen avenue, next to a large, sprawling lake. It was a white two story building with a blue roof with yellow ridges, green windows and red doors. From the front it looked like a face, one familiar to Kio, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why that was.

It had taken him a good 23 minutes to get down that hill and back to town, much improved from his previous record of 50 minutes, and, and as he tumbled down the dirt hill, stuck the landing and jumped the fence, his thoughts were on one thing: why did she want him to get that device? She always said it would bring trouble, but he could never part with it; it had too much sentimental value to him and was the only link to his biological family. That and he _couldn't_ part with it. He tried pawning it, throwing it into the trash, throwing it into the river, but like the Vagans every couple of years, the thing came back, fresh as a daisy and completely unharmed! The 'Age Device' as she called it, was only to be used when she said so, and never before then. And given how frantic and scared she was acting at the moment, speed was of upmost necessity.

So with that in mind, he figured it was only prudent to kick down his door. Ignoring his sister's cries of confusion -and complimenting her on her blouse to appease her, which probably didn't work given all the cursing he was hearing being mixed inbetween the cursing- he ran to the basement door and kicked it in and ran down the stairs, ignoring the cobwebs that got in his way as he descended. "This is taking too long!" He said just a few seconds later, his friend's frantic pleas turning to babbling. He couldn't make out most of it, but he heard the words 'Vagan' and 'again' in there. Why did mom have to build this stupid thing so deep into the ground? It was like she was trying to hide something where no sane person would ever look! "Wait what?!" She couldn't be serious, could she? Well he _was_ pretty durable. "Fine fine, I'll do it!" Following her advice he jumped the railing, Wendy's screaming of his name echoing in his ear as he landed with a heavy thud on the floor. "Huh, that wasn't too bad-" Was all he got out before Wendy landed directly onto his stomach, sticking the landing better than he could and glaring down at him with all the anger of someone who just had their door broken in and wanted answers.

"You.. **IDIOT!** " Wendy dug the sole of her shoe into his stomach for good measure before getting off of him. "What were you thinking?!" When Kio groaned she kicked him in the stomach before brushing her braid out of her face. "DON'T ANSWER!"

Kio wheezed and coughed, but recovered quickly in just a few seconds. "I gotta get the thing..." He took one last breath before getting up off the ground with a physics defying jump. "Nice..blouse.." It complimented her pale skin and black jeans quite nicely. Her blonde hair was down, reaching past her shoulders, and she was wearing those yellow cat themed oven mitts she liked, which meant she was probably getting his meat tacos out the oven. "You look pretty!" When all he got was a glare, her bangs casting a shadow over her eyes, he continued. "The Age Device, I have to get it, or we're all dead!"

"What are you-" And then Kio began talking to his imaginary friend again as if the thing just butted into the conversation. Wendy let out a sigh as she watched him talk to thin air... _again._ "Mom's gonna have a fit when she sees this." And Kio was doing so well too! They just got him to wear underwear for longer than 20 minutes and he does this! Why?! "I'm not taking the blame for this one Kio!" She yelled, getting his attention. "There better be a _huge_ disaster or something coming, because I will _not_ take the blame for this one again!" It was bad enough when she got roped into his problems because he wouldn't stop sniffing random people like a dog! _'Honestly it's like he's part_ _ **caveman**_ _or something!'_

"Alright alright!" Kio grumbled before turning to face Wendy. "She says you're not going to let me through."

"After what you did?! Of course I won't!" Kio turned to the air again and began talking. "Oh what now? Get upstairs _right now_ or-"

"She says she saw you take mom's special toy out of her drawer to show to your friends that you're grown up, and then you ran screaming when it started buzzing."

"..."

"Afterwards, she said you-"

Wendy tackled him to the ground, her face red. "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!"

"She told me." Was the answer that in all honesty Wendy should have expected. "She's not around me _all_ the time you know."

Still red in the face, Wendy got off of him and pulled him up. "Blackmail huh?" She muttered. "I expected better from you. Anything to stay in la-la-land, huh?"

Kio blinked. "What are you talking about?" He turned to his side. "Oh so that's why...denial. But what does her needing to lie down have to do with anything?" He was so busy talking he didn't hear Wendy's angry sputtering, her face redder than before from the obvious misinterpreted phrase. "Alright, if you say so." He then ran past Wendy, and before she could recover from the fact that her brother indirectly told her go do the dirty deed, he had descended deeper into the basement.

So many dead humans.

As It swam through the tunnel, swatting away crushed and ruined transport crafts, It counted the amount of corpses floating past It, kept in containment suits, just doing their job before all hell broke loose. 40 corpses in the docking bay, 50 in the warehouses. The metallic storage units held up quite nicely, so nicely in fact that if It were a human who cared about making a living, It could probably sell the storage units themselves for a quick and easy Yen! The electricity was still flowing perfectly well too; not enough to activate any of the factory machinery, but enough so that it showed that the facility was waterproof. [Odd] This was...completely unnecessary protection. On Vagan you _needed_ waterproofing like this and then some if you were going to build anything there, but this...this was excessive! The waterproof coating was _built_ into the circuitry and wiring of every machine here, but the only way to get this specific coating was on Vagan! [Questions for later.] _Lots_ of questions for later; right now it had a colony to sabotage and some Asunos to kill.

It continued It's leisurely pace, going down hallway after hallway meant for spaceships, and then It went upward and upward, passing by elevator debris until It reached an abandoned city. [Interesting.] There was an entire city above this one, so this must have been the part of the Colony that didn't make it. [Lot of corpses around.] A few kids, some adults, lots of workers...and even some old fashioned suits that would become the basis for the armor the Federation soldiers wore! There was the predecessor to the Genoace,the construction machines that would become the Desperado, the Enact, the- [Wait what?!] That couldn't be right! [It floated backwards and looked down at the ruined highway. Sure enough, there it was, the AEU-09 Enact! [How?!] Those things were supposed to be on Vagan, and they only found these robots after the 2nd Vagan war with Earth! [How are these things here?!] _More_ questions for later! [Just focus on the mission...] As It swam away however, It missed a set of glowing green eyes staring at It, with a glowing yellow V-shape...along with a very familiar A-like symbol above that.

"I know, I know!" Kio yelled angrily to his friend as he slid under a _laser_! He didn't know why his parents put a _laser defense system_ under their basement, but it made his quip about them hiding something was actually true! "Right!" He jumped across the floor, just in time to avoid _turret gunfire!_ "WHY IS THIS HERE?!" These are military grade turrets, used at the Big Ring during the era of the second Gundam! And he would question how in the world he knew that if not for the- "IS THAT A GENOACE?!"

Anyone remotely interested in robotics knew of the Genoace line, the power armor used by Earth Federation during the development of the first Gundam through the end of the first Earth-Vagan conflict until the Genoace 2 at the start of the 2nd conflict, and then replaced by the Adele at the end. Their sizes rarely varied and were all at the same height of 8'5", with additional padding and plating for those too short to reach the chest to put on the helmet. They were a lot bulkier than the Adelle, a stark contrast between how slim the 1st Gundam was compared to the second, though the armor a bit of bulk just enough to absorb damage without impeding movement. Their shoulders were large and square, with guns on both of them that could be heavily modified from shooting bullets or shooting foam to put out fires, as the Genoace armor often doubled as emergency rescue support when help was scarce. On the helmet was a single camera, located in a slot above the faceplate, that fed information to the armor's onboard computer systems, and according to Flit Asuno was one of the things that helped with the Gundam's fantastic learning capabilities. If you looked at them at face value, they were far more intimidating than the 4 foot tall Gundams, which his friend often Cheebee' or 'Kah-wah-ee'. But if you knew about the Gundams, you'd know that even unarmed they could punch a hole through a Genoace like it was nothing. But that didn't answer the question Kio had of _what was one doing in his basement?!_

"WHOAH!" He ducked out of the way, missing the karate chop to his head. In fact, he ducked so fast that the Genoace paused mid-chop and kicked the boy before he could get up, sending him into the brick wall with enough force to crack it. "Owww..." Kio woggily got up and rubbed his head, only to realize something. "That didn't hurt." Eyes wide, he slowly turned to the brick wall and tapped against it with his fist. "It's brick!" So it wasn't a fake wall. "How did I-" Suddenly his friend yelled directions which he followed, Kio ducking just in time to dodge the Genoace's fist, which was embedded in the wall. Kio rolled out of the way and quickly got up and kept running. "Which way do I go?!" At her direction he ran westward and ducked under the Genoace's roundhouse kick. "Wow this thing was fast!" Come to think of it, why weren't his senses picking up this thing? He could sense whenever his mom was angry at him from across the city while he was sleeping in school, why couldn't he sense this thing just a few feet away from him?!

"Huh, that makes a lot of sense." He muttered as she alerted him again, strafing to the side to avoid the things shoulder gunfire, the energy bullets lighting up the basement for a second with each impact. Of course it would be an unmanned drone, there wasn't anything here that looked liveable unless you were some dust eating hermit! Using the lights as a makeshift trail to keep track of the machine, Kio continued to follow his friend's advice and turned eastward, then after a few seconds west, then south. He didn't know how long he was running but she told him that he had lost the Genoace, must to his relief. _'Once I get this stupid thing, I'm going to boarding school!'_ He had plenty of offers to be taken abroad to another school for his...less than stellar academic performance, and oh _boy_ was he going to take up those offers He had seen fartoo much to continue living comfortably in this house!

A bright green glow suddenly poured from the darkness, blinding Kio for a split second before his eyes adjusted. When they did adjust, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.


	4. Awaken to the new age Gundam!

It couldn't believe what It was seeing. It couldn't believe what It was _sensing!_

First things first were the Enacts, one holding up a highway bridge and another crouching with it's arms around something as though it were shielding people from an attack. The Mobile Suits were exactly how you'd expect giant hunks of metal to look after centuries underwater; rusted, falling apart, and covered in algae. It was like they were frozen in time, as were the cars the first Enact was holding up and the clothed skeletons floating around. The second thing was that the first X-Rounder signal had divided into two, and the new one...oh boy. It signal was almost as strong as the researchers said commander Zeheart's would be once he got out of cryo-sleep!

Out of fear, It booted up the weapons systems, the fans on It's gun sucking in more and more water to power the weapon. It continued on It's way through the dead city, speeding up as fast as It could without overloading It's propulsion when all of a sudden-

Hacking enemy communications. Gundam Type suit detected. Onboard weapons detected: 3

[Oh no...]

It could see it in the dark depths of this flooded ruin; the green, menacing eyes, the glowing yellow V-fin, and the two A-like symbols on it's chest and head. [How?!] Intel said there was a new unit _in the works,_ not ready for deployment! And It knew that this Gundam was brand new from the shape of it's fin and the shape of the A symbols! [This is not good, not good at all!]

He was in a white chamber, one the size of his living room and rectangular, with various boxes that he was going to assume were servers lining the wall. On the ceiling was the symbol of the Asuno family sending a bright green light onto the chamber, and in the center of the light, connected to various wires that stuck out of the ground like weeds and standing at a mere 4 feet tall, was the Gundam, the very 1st Gundam ever built. "No way..." Kio couldn't restrain the elation and odd nostalgia he was feeling, his fear of the killer suit of armor that was probably still searching for him long gone. " **S** pecial Armored Mobile **D** rone, Gundam Age-1..." The very drone controlled by the then very young Flit Asuno, or chicken little as he was mockingly called by his peers before the Vagan took down Nora. He remembered the name in history class all too well, perking up whenever the name 'Gundam' was said. Best way to wake him up, as Wendy -and later the teachers when she told them- found out.

"It's here...the Gundam's under my house!" This explains why Flit Asuno built Oliver Notes, to hide his first creation! That theory was so awesome to him that that's what he was going with! He was staring at a piece of history with an extensive combat career and helped expand the field of robotics! It's V-fin was as white as it's helmet, and it had the largest Asuno family logos on it's chest and above it's fin. It was styled like what his friend called a 'Sam-U-Ry-' with the helmet, mouth plate and red chin, along with the faulds and slanted shoulderpads. Despite it's history and significance, Kio quickly quelled his excitement, mainly out of fear from how utterly depressed his friend was feeling. "S-sorry." She began to admonish him, though Kio could hear the worry and fear in her voice, each word rolling out too fast with one or two syllables being stuttered out. With his mind cleared and the fanboy in him suppressed, he could tell this thing was to put it as kindly as he could, crap by today's standards. No it was worse than crap in fact.

The first thing of note were the yellow vents on the sides of the chest. The fact that these existed on the unit and not on an axillary weapon showed how antiquated the thing was. It's blue and white armor was dulled to the point of looking bleak, and the V-fin had numerous burn marks and the legs were cracked in places. Burn marks lined every single part of the machine, even the red thrusters on it's feet, and as Kio walked behind the machine, he saw that the connecting ports for the famous backpack that inspired the power packs on the Genoace 2 and Adele units were damaged beyond repair, making this thing's combat usage even less than nothing. There was a slot open above the connectors where all the cables were connected to, likely feedint he machine energy. The red connectors on it's faulds that were supposed to provide extra protection for the legs should they be in danger of becoming disconnected were also outdated by the fact that they were even needed in the first place.

"Why was this here?" And why would his parents allow this?! What if he or his friends- or heaven forbid Wendy and her "friends"- came down here?!

"KIO! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Wendy pounded against the brick wall Kio phased through like a ghost nearly half an hour ago. "Kio this isn't funny, where are you?!" She continued to pound and pound, yelling for her brother to come out, when all of a sudden, a hand shot out of the wall, causing her to stumble back with a scream. Out of the wall came one of those armor things her brother loved to gush about, staring at her like it was going to rip her head off. "Eeep!"

"I gotta find her!" He felt like the worst scum of the earth right now. What kind of jerk fanboys while there was a killer out there with his sister potentially in danger?! "Maybe she's upstairs, telling on me for breaking down the doors? Or probably try to talk her stupid "friends" into letting her hang out with them! Yeah, that's right!" He let out a nervous, fearful chuckle, an uneasy smile stuck on his face for 4 seconds before he let out a scream and bolted out the chamber and into the darkness.

"OW!" Only for his friend to trip him. "Why?! I gotta save her, I'm the only one who-" His friend then yelled at him, and yell, and yell, ranting at him why it was a terrible idea and giving vivid imagery of what would happen to him if the Genoace got a good hit on him with it's weapons. Her descriptions were so vivid, that he had to swallow down his vomit more than once. "Alright I get it!" He didn't know how she made getting shot by energy weapons so horrible sounding, but she did! "You could've stopped at the flesh burning, jeez!" He didn't even know about so many ways to die by energy weaponry, so how did she know?! From the way she talked, the fact she was crying about it, it was like she was killed by one...and his senses were telling him it was by someone was close to her. "So what do I do then?" She pointed to the Gundam, a look telling him that should have been obvious. "...Oh yeah." His eyes widened as he remembered the most important thing about the Gundam. "The Age Device!" That was the reason he came down here! "Where is it?!" Flit had done interviews when talking about the development of the Gundams, and one of the things he talked about that Kio thought was so cool at the time was that the Gundams were programmed to brick if someone tried to activate them without permission, and the Age Device was that permission! The fact that the Gundam _needed_ the Age Device to power itself was a feature he couldn't work around, something about the Gundams needing to be a lot bigger, the size of a building he theorized, to get a satisfactory power source inside it. "Where is it?!" He remembered this chamber, he remembered the Age device being put in here, but he didn't remember the Gundam being here! How did-

"OW!" He rubbed his head and glared at his friend. "What'd you do that for?!" She began to explain as best as she could. "Oh." She knew as much of this chamber as he did, but she could detect where the Age Device was, somehow. He followed her back into the chamber as she fiddled around a random part of the wall before pointing at a specific part. Kio walked to it and following her instructions, pressed his palm against the section of the wall, and held it there. "So what am I supposed to do?"

Asuno bioprint recognized.

Kio yelled and jumped back as the part of the wall he was touching opened up, revealing the device he came down here to get. "How did this get here?" He put this in a drawer last time...or was it when he used the underground tunnels to transport the Age-1 here when he- "My heeaaadd..."

This was it, this was the new Gundam alright.

It was as short as the other two and had the same mix of reds, whites, and blues, though it had a lot more blue than the other Gundams. It had a yellow V-fin unlike other Gundam's white ones, but it had a large blue piece in the middle, giving the V-fin an almost crown-like shape. It had a very bulky top half with yellow triangular gems on it's shoulders, with what looked like a pair of plane wings at the end of both shoulders. It had white arms, as thin as a human it's height with black elbow joints and black hands, with large blue arm guards. Taking a closer look with It's zoom feature, It could see that the bottom of the arm guards had slots, probably for Beam Sabers which the Gundam thankfully didn't seem to have. The Gundam's thrusters were as blue as the second one, and from the air bubbles rushing out the bottom, had been equipped with underwater propulsion mechanisms, and from the bubbles coming out form behind the Gundam, It could tell that this one also had one of those backpacks, though unlike the 2nd Gundam, this one looked like it didn't have the robot to ship transformation ability. It could tell that there were parts of it that looked like it could transform, but it was like the Asuno who created it skimped out at the last minute on that feature. [The Asuno!] That's right! If the Gundam's here, then there's a signal It could track to find where the Asuno was controlling the drone! [Where are you where are you?!] It wouldn't get the chance to track the signal however.

"So I can stop that Genoace out there with this, right?" The fact this weird room told him he was an Asuno, and those strange memories? Not important to Kio in the slightest. Right now his mind was on Wendy, and the many _delightful_ ways his friend told him a Genoace could murder a person with just a few energy bullets. "Alright, good." He turned to the Gundam and walked towards it, Age Device held out with a look of determination on his face. He knew exactly what to do next, having seen it plenty of times in old documentary videos. When he got within two feet of the Gundam, the A-like symbol on it's chest began to glow, the green light filling his body with a sense of peace and comfort. Though that was marred by the negativity his friend was emitting. "Could you tone it down a bit please?" She wasn't saying anything, but he could _feel_ the raw despair and sadness coming off of her, and it was enough to make him feel like he just killed a puppy. It was making him sweaty, his body shaking as he himself was experiencing the emotions she was. He tenderly touched the side of the Gundam's helmet, tears beginning to form. "It's been so long..." He hadn't seen this in years, not since Asemu-

"OOWOWWWW!" Kio fell to the floor and dropped the Age Device, pain ringing from his head and stomach. "What'd you do that for, I was reminiscing, can't I do tha-" He blinked. "Why am I crying?" Groaning in pain, he used the Gundam's chest as support to lift himself up and picked up the Age Device off the floor. "Alright...let's try this again." He put the Age Device in the center of the Gundam's chest, and just like the videos, the Gundam's eyes turned on, two menacing green eyes staring up at him. "It worked.." It actually worked! "Gundam, go rescue my sister, please!" The Gundam stared up at him. "W-what are you doing? Go rescue Wendy!" The Gundam did nothing, except tilt it's head in confusion. "Of course! After all that's happened, why wouldn't I think it could read my mind?!" The Gundam continued to stare.

"Alright then, you know best." And she knew far too much about this thing. He put his hand on the Gundam's chest and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and again following her instructions. It was quite easy to clear his mind, much to his frustration. It didn't help the insults stop when he got so bored he could literally remove all the information he learned from his head, which lead to a not so pleasant incident where he thought his name was 'Awesomoo' or something, and that he wanted to do..something to miss Gunhale that made him redfaced for a full day. _'Empty my mind...empty my mind..just like at school.'_ He could imagine it now: the teacher talking about stuff he didn't care about, and despite Wendy trying to wake him up he just couldn't care. He imagined the teacher's voice, that pleasant lullaby of utter boredom that sent him into dreamland. Soon enough he wasn't even aware of where he was. Who was he; better yet, _what_ was he? Was he a human, or something more? He was connected to a higher plane of being, and everywhere he looked, all he saw was outer space, and felt nothing but utter joy, as if he wanted to go there, to escape the confines of the earth itself!

 **[Thank you Kio.]** He was suddenly bought back to reality by a _very_ familiar voice. [ **Honestly learning how to do this while inside that flower shaped coffin..X-Rounder powers are truly amazing.]** __He looked down and to his shock, that voice, the voice of his friend, was coming from the Gundam, and it had purple eyes now, staring at him like he did whenever something interesting in school came up! [ **So, what do you think of my voice? It feels so good to have a body again after all these years!]**

"W-wha-" Kio held his hands out and closed his eyes. The eye display on that thing was very expressive. "That's not important now! We need to save Wendy!"

The Gundam shook her head and sighed. **[Y-yes you're right!]** She could enjoy the perks of having hands and the ability to actually see later. **[Let's go! My scanners are picking up the Genoace 3 miles from our location! Follow me!]** __The wires off her back disengaged and she began running into the darkness, Kio following and using the glowing camera on the back of her helmet to keep track of her.

Within the specified time they found the renegade armor, running around like a chicken without it's head, and Wendy running for her life in the opposite direction, and oh boy she reeked! "How did she get here so fast?!" He yelled through a clenched nose. It took him half an hour to get here, and Wendy took to athletics as gracefully as he took to school! He took a step forward to grab her and run, only for a high pitched noise to send him and Wendy sprawling to the floor. His ears rang for a few seconds before his hearing recovered, but before that he heard multiple dull noises, and they almost sounded like bullets! He looked up and he saw the Genoace on the floor with multiple smoke trails pouring out of it's body, and Wendy unconscious.

 **[I could not, in good conscience, let you kill yourself like that.]** His friend said. **[Thankfully the head had it's vulcan cannons loaded.]** She bent down slightly and helped him up off the ground. **[I apologize for that; are you ok?]**

"I recovered from that too fast. He walked up to Wendy, grabbing one arm before throwing her onto his back like she was a sack of potatoes. "You know a lot, about this place, about the Gundams...about my birth family."

She could sense the resentment growing in him. It was small, but like his father and his father's father, it could grow into a raging inferno. _**[I was acting just like Flit and Asemu!]**_ Keeping secrets for the best interests of your loved ones, and look how well it worked out for them, and she was no better either! **[Fine, I shall tell you everything.]** A stable life didn't seem to be in the cards for this family it seemed.


	5. Phantoms of the first AGE

Repairs to damaged optical unit complete. I-beam coating applied to occular unit. No damage to lower body detected. Unit designated as Gundam AGE-3, Type Normal, is 4 miles from current location.

A Photon Cannon...just like the one that put down Gafran and the Fa Bose mothership...and that little dwarf of a machine had one as it's main weapon! Just another reason to get the Age Device back, who knows what those Asunos could make with that thing in another few decades?!

The blast sent It a good 6.437 kilometers through a city block, the force strong enough that water resistance wasn't a factor at all! No smoke, no debris, the blast and the resulting explosion from the impact left nothing. [Clean energy.] That could be a problem for the others. With a yell It let out a burst of energy, the electricity interacting with the water to vaporize the _entire_ flooded city. If the Gundam was here, than the Federation was soon to follow, and while It was competent the spies in the organization would make this fight quite annoying for the Gundam, the underwater attacking capabilities of their ships were not to be trifled with!

It swam through the smoke, sensors trained on the Gundam as it just floated in the position it fired it's giant cannon at. It hadn't moved from it's original position. Removing the smoke was pointless, It wasn't fighting a human in Adele-Aquos after all, so It waited for the Gundam to make a move...and waited...and waited... Was this a décoy? It wouldn't put it past the Gundams to be able to make one so fast, but It was detecting a massive amount of energy being generated by the Gundam's miniature Photon Cannon, so it couldn't be a fake! But just to be sure, it began drawing in water, slow enough to not draw in any of the smoke, lest the Gundam's controller panic and fired before either of their charges were complete. Almost there...almost there...

[AAAAGHH!] And then he was shot in the back, thrown another 4 miles. It _was_ a decoy! It focused It's sensors on where the Gundam could possibly fire, but It was thrown another 4 miles -into the ground- and then shot in It's back again and again, five times in a row with increasing strength. [Ok, that wasn't-] It got out before the Gundam shot at It's back again. The blasts didn't break It's armor or damage any circuitry, but they _hurt!_ [It's time to use my secret weapon.] The Asuno controlling the drone would figure out what happened the second he lost contact with the Gundam – and probably figure out a counter- but at least It could get away. It clenched It's fist and gathered energy in It's palm before slowly opening it, releasing a loud sound wave that echoed even under these depths.

"Gundam?" Kio looked down at the tiny machine, it's visual display pitch black as it stood there hunched over. "Gundam?" He lightly tapped it on the head and jumped back with a slight yelp when it reactivated and stared up back at him. "H-Hi?"

She let out a loud groan. It felt like Flit hit her with the Magina's wand again! **[It seems this body was temporarily deactivated by a large scale EMP pulse.]** She sighed at Kio's confused stare. _**[Of course.]**_ __Simpler explanations were needed with him. [Magnets. Robots.]

"Oooohhhh, I get it!" He blinked at her. "So shouldn't you not be around? The last time I put a magnet on a computer it took me three months to pay off the damages!"

More like it should have taken him three years with how badly he messed up his school's 22 million Euro servers to play his game of Sunrise Build Fighters, but Kio's ability to comprehend such things was as bountiful as Decil Gallette's sense of empathy. **[Yes. Exactly. Now as I was saying before I was interrupted, you are an Asuno.]** She narrowed her eyes at the starstruck glaze in his eyes. **[You are not a superhuman Kio, you are a** _ **boy,**_ **and your father and grandfather are men as well.]** Well one of them became a child again, but that's what decades of war and losing your son would do to you, one of the few things she wouldn't blame Flit for.

Kio crossed his arms. "Buzzard."

 **[Buzz** _ **kill.**_ **]** Oh how the decades tempered her patience. **[And Kio?** _ **Do not**_ **interrupt me again.]** The young boy gulped, recognizing that tone of voice. Once she was sure he wouldn't open his mouth, she continued. **[I was familiar with your grandfather from a very young age. He rescued me when the first Vagan Giant attacked. Your grandfather wasn't as attuned to his powers as you were, so I was the one who controlled the AGE-1, though not in the way I'm currently controlling it, and over the course of two hours, I defeated the Gafran. Controlling these things the way they were meant to...it felt quite clunky.]**

"Wait a minute..." A dim bulb went off in Kio's brain. "Are you Emily, that fat blue haired guy?"

She blinked, staring at him for a full minute as to how he could possibly confuse a blue haired, tanned, overweight parasite that Flit liked to have around, for a purple haired, _thin,_ and very pale skinned _girl._ At least he didn't confuse for Emily; she was a lot more feminine than that parrot. **[No Kio, I am not;** _ **stop interrupting me.]**_ If she was capable of smirking, she would have had a huge grin on her face from the expression Kio was given. Like grandfather, like grandson. **[After I defeated that gigantic dragon I-]** She stared at Kio to make sure he wouldn't say anything. **[-I fell unconscious. I was then-]**

"Oh I get it now!" Kio yelled, trying to snap his fingers and failing miserably at it, not seeing the Gundam's eyes shrink to pinpricks in anger. "You're Urine right?"

 **[….Asuno, I am going to open fire on you if spew another vapid thought from your vocal orifice.]** She warned, her eyes still shrunk. **[And it is not 'Urine' pronounce it like U-reen, U-reen R-C-L! Do not make put you on the same level of 'intelligence' as that annoying green toy ball that Flit-]** Her eyes returned to normal and she held her hands out. **[No, no, no.]** She pointed to the unconscious Wendy over Kio's shoulder. **[Let's get her upstairs, your stupidity has angered me.]** Kio opened his mouth to speak. **[MOVE, NOW!]** Kio nodded fearfully and ran to where the stairs were, Yurin following him. __ _ **[And in the meantime, I can trace where that EMP burst came from.]**_

Due to going up wooden stairs that wouldn't support her vessel's weight, it took a good 20 minutes before Yurin was able to get up to the living room, and once again she would find something to rouse her fury.

 **[KIO!]** Wendy was lying on the table, the hard, wooden table with her lower half on the floor because Kio didn't have the decency to put her in a way so that only her legs were on the floor! **[WHERE ARE YOU?!]**

Kio came from the kitchen, chewing on a chicken bone, crunching it inbetween his teeth like brittle, out of dated, brittle hard candy. Yurin noted that he actually got the leftovers and not the raw meat this time, not that he cared what he ate. "Oh, hey U-rin." _Yurin_ pointed a hand at Wendy. "What's the problem?"

 **[People don't sleep like you do Kio, she needs a proper flat surface!]** Kio continued to eat the chicken bone, not understanding why Wendy would need a flat surface. Yurin shook her head and picked Wendy up, placing her on the couch. She closed her eyes, taking a second to calm herself. **[Alright, the Gundam's active, so you and your family should have** _ **some**_ **form of protection.]** It would have been better if Flit left at least the Spallow or the Swordia, or something that could fly, but beggars can't be choosers **[Remember when I sensed something was coming?]**

There was silence for a few seconds before Kio realized she wanted him to speak up. "Yeah I remember."

Oh, so he didn't. **[Good, because it's coming closer and closer to the upper layer of this Colony. I'm getting the ID now...just a minute... It's a Guardian Class Vagan Mobile Armor!]** How did one of those things even get here?!

And it was at the mention of those words that Kio's entire demeanor changed, his eyes hardening with a deep frown forming. He spat out the chicken bones onto the ground and walked to his sister, picking her up off the ground. "How long until it reaches here?" He stared blankly into Yurin's eyes. "Me and Wendy nearly died getting that stupid pendant thing in your chest."

 **[T-three hours.]** Yurin answered nervously, struggling to maintain eye contact with Kio. That blank, emotionless face was far too unnerving. How many murderous thoughts towards the coming enemy formed within the seconds she uttered those words? **[3 hours until it reaches us.]** How did this thing get into the AGE database?! A Gundam had to have killed or fought an enemy machine before it was uploaded into the system! **[We have to get to the nearest Federation military base and inform them of the situation.]** Unlike Flit or Asemu, she could trust the military not to let their own vices get in the way of logic. **[You should be able to detach the AGE device from my chest before the Vagan mech arrives on this layer.]** It was around this time that Wendy woke up, her vision clearing up as her eyes landing on the 4 foot tall Gundam. Her eyes widened at the sight of the purple eyed machine talking to her idiot of a brother, the only sounds out of her mouth being nothing but the letter g over and over again. **[They should take my presence as a sign that the Vagans are active now, and we can work from there. Also your sister is awake.]**

"G-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-" Oh god it was staring at her! "GUNDAM! THERE'S A GUNDAM, A GUNDAM IN MY HOUSE!" She noticed Kio staring at the thing like a zombie. "Stop drooling over that thing you idiot and get it out of here!"

"Hi Wendy." Kio said blankly, the complete lack of emotion his voice turning Wendy's fear away from the Gundam and onto him. "We're going to be attacked soon."

Wendy blinked. "Kio, what's going on?" The only time he acted like this was whenever she or mom got hurt, or someone was threatening anyone he cared about. "Did you hurt someone? Are we going to get another lawsuit?!" She began hyperventilating at the thought. "I don't know what hit me or why my ears are ringing, but it wasn't worth crippling someone!"

"Huh?" That bought Kio out of his trance. "What are you talking about Wendy, I didn't hurt someone this time!" You beat some old guy who touched his sister's butt to a bloody pulp with a trash can lid, and everyone thinks you're a psycho! The guy shouldn't have tried to pull down her pants, he wasn't in the wrong! "But we'll be a lot more than hurt if we don't get to the base thing!"

 **[Your brother is right.]** Yurin chimed in, waiting a few seconds for Wendy to stop screaming before she spoke again. **[There is a Vagan machine on it's way to our current location.]**

"Y-you're talking..you're TALK-" Kio's glare shut her up. _'Oh no.'_ Kio was in full 'protective kid brother mode'. He _never_ got like that unless he was sure she or mom were going to die, and whenever he got like that, his mood was warranted. "So, the military base right?"

"Yes."

 **[Correct]**

"Great great, _fantastic!_ " She was taking this far too well for her liking! Having a psychic brother probably helped "So let's go, don't want another Tordia or Nora on our hands huh?" As she let out an uneasy nervous laugh, fear laced into her posture and voice, neither her nor the strange talking Gundam saw Kio's despondant look, the way he flinched when she said the name of the two lost Colonies...almost as if he was there himself.

It's secret weapon was now useless. That EMP blast was supposed to be It's ace in the hole, the perfect way to one shot the Gundam...and now that damned Asuno had it's data loaded into the device! But on the other hand, It managed to load the Gundam's data into _It's_ database, so tracking the thing was going to be quite easy. But now It had another problem. It knew the Gundam would come after It, so It needed to act fast, and most importantly _get out of the water._ [Another civilian district] It muttered as It swam. Each Colony was supposed to have at least three military districts, but It couldn't find a single one, just skeletons and Enacts, some of which were melted while others were disassembled, very meticulously It might add, almost as if someone was scavenging them for parts.; it was probably the Asuno scavenging for parts to add to his Gundam and any potential accessories it had. [I don't detect the machine anywhere...] It ruled out the possibility that the Gundam was cloaked. Even if the Asuno unlocked thef full technological prowess of the device, the Gundam models of this world used far too much energy for even basic cloaking to mask their presence. But given the fact that It didn't detect the device on the machine, that meant the Gundam was not operating at it's fullest potential. Thank goodness for small miracles.

The swim continued unabated for twenty minutes, over highways, over uprooted forests and mechs, until It finally reached a roadblock. The rotational ring for this section of the colony was halfway embedded into the structure that was supposed to take It to the secondary level. It aimed It's gun at a hole It saw and fired a small drone out the barrel. The drone gave It a live feed as it travelled into the hole a good twenty miles, using sonar to map out places it couldn't get into. [Ah, I see.] The inside of the hole lead to a large highway network inside a mountain that lead underground. Twelve roads at the start that split up into forty different sections that led into civilian and military districts of the colony. From what It was picking up, the only way into the upper levels was to go downward and then up through the emergency shuttle bay, which was the only part that was still intact. but if It went the easy way, blasting through, the risk of a cave in was far too high. And what was worse, the Gundam's energy readings, faint as it was, reappeared on It's sensors. There was no way It was going to let Itself be hit by that drone's mini ship cannon, so there was one option left for it, and if the Gundam caught up to It before it reached the surface and transformed back, the it was all over for It. [Initiating transformations 3-7!] It backed away, firing small bursts of pressurized water at the hole to increase the size, but not enough to affect the already shaky structure. Given that the Gundam was piloted by a human, It was hoping that the Asuno wouldn't notice the small size discrepancy; age affected the judgement of X-rounders more than regular humans after all. [TRANSFORM!] a bright light shined, and in the five seconds of it's existence formed five fish shaped attack vehicles, made up of the bipedal Vagan mech. . The head fighter was made up of It's head and upper torso formed into a shark-like shape. The lamprey parts formed the front, it's teeth rotating rapidly with It's optical unit shining brightly within the confines of the mouth. The upper torso turned into two razor sharp fins on the side and into three rectangular slots on the back, with the top connecting these slots to the front, sloping downward at a 50 degree angle. The slots on the back were glowing with a green energy but produced nothing that allowed the machine to propel itself at all.

The left arm had merged with the gun arm, the main body of the gun acting as the center of the second vehicle, as well as it's engine. The left arm formed a V shaped crest that covered up the front of the body, opening up halfway, almost as if it were a mouth. The fingers were fastened to the bottom of the machine as if they were feelers. One third of the gun barrel was fastened at the top of the machine like a dorsal fin, spewing out water and able to rotate the barrel to the front of the machine should the need arise. Like the first machine and the next three machines, it had those weird rectangular slots on the back.

The third and fourth machines were made of the left and right legs, and the other two thirds of the gun barrel. The leg took the shape of a fish, with the webbed feet extend and shifted. The top toes were at the top, and the other two were at the bottom left and right respectively, the web connecting the three and forming a rounded triangle around the single rectangular slot both legs had. The front of the fish was the part connecting the legs to the body flipped so that that the side was the head, the head on the left leg producing an ominous green glow while the right produces a strangely calming red.

The final piece was the biggest, a large, sea dragon. It was segmented, the sword acting as a shockingly flexible spine as it swayed underwater. The head of the serpent was the original machine's lower half's head and chest, the head being the smallest of the 9 segements and each segment going down getting bigger and bigger until it ended with a large, honeycomb shaped octagonal attachment at the back. Each segment had these hexagonal shapes on the back, and the pontoons had seperated, one half formed the long, gangly arms with thick, meaty claws, and the other half acting as Bits for the unit.

With all five parts seperated and the original combined unit's intelligence decreased by 12%, the machines floated into the tunnel, following the map made by the drone. In two hours and twenty-two minutes, the third and hopefully final Vagan war would begin, and the Asuno family and their Gundams would be destroyed.

 **[Two hours and twenty-two minutes until the Vagan unit makes landfall.]** Yurin informed the two children as she carried them above her head like they were trophies. Kio and Wendy's neighbors watched with gobsmacked faces as this little child sized robot ran down the country roads. It would be almost comical if it wasn't for the fact that the thing carrying the local troublemaker and his sister was a _Gundam_ and came out of their house! Or at least they thought it was a Gundam. It had the head of one, but it was moving far more realistically than the ones seen in the documentaries, and it didn't even have a V-fin.. **[I apologize Wendy, but none of the vehicles here can support my weight.]** Wendy could only reply by moaning painfully as they left the Oliver Notes city limits, her face blue as she barely kept in her vomit. Kio stared up at the sky, unaffected by the speed. This had nothing on the Genoace Mobile Armor Simulator!

The roads were empty, as barely anyone came to this city, allowing Yurin to carry the children unabated to the nearest military base. Everywhere her front optics and back camera looked, she could see greenery, all on it's own and and left alone. _**[It's just like Tordia and Nora.]**_ It was just like how the world looked according to her parent's history records. She could remember showing Kio how to climb trees here, how to swim, and how to camp outside. If he was going to be stupid enough to try chasing after squirrels after one stole his lunch when he was 4-

" _I'm gonna get that stupid squirrel and eat him, see how he likes it!"_

-And the unfortunate hospitalization that followed, or the time he tried his hand at being a fisherman-

" _What's a fishing rod? I could've been using that instead of my hands?!"_

 _-_ And the unfortunate hospitalization that followed from the water getting into his squirrel bites, She figured she might as well teach him how to survive in the wilderness. Despite how much he tested her patience, she could admit that those memories would be one of the fondest she had of him. _**[And soon, all of it will be destroyed.]**_ Just like always. She felt a sense of nostalgia as she passed by, remembering the Colonies that came before this one, knowing there was a good chance this beauty would soon be replaced by the fires of war.

 **[Let's take a break.]** She gently laid the two onto the ground, Wendy running to a nearby bush and depositing the contents of her stomach into it and Kio getting up and staring into the distance. With the two out of her grip, she could open up her V-fin, which she did, the two prongs shooting out like retractable claws. Oh it felt so good to have those things back out! **[We should be there in the next sixteen minutes if I keep up my current speed.]**

"I'll say!" Kio exclaimed in shock as he turned to Oliver Notes in the distance, narrowing his eyes at th speck in the distance. "That would have taken my mom 30 minutes to get this far with her truck!" That was almost as fast as Zeheart's Zedas! Man that fight was- "My head.."

 **[Memory leakage]** Yurin explained as Wendy finished vomiting, still looking horrible as she slowly walked back to the two. **[This seems to be a problem all 3** **rd** **generation and above X-Rounders have. It should pass soon.]** Two hours and forty minutes left; they were making good time. _**[I hope it passes soon.]**_ She never had the chance to see how 3rd generation X-Rounders that weren't afflicted with the Mars Ray disease would react to memory leakage, but thankfully he was taking it better than Vagan soldiers his age. **[Once we're at the base, let me do the talking.]** Kio nodded as Yurin walked forward to observe their destination in the distance, Wendy finally recovering from her ordeal and steeling herself to go through it again. _**[How on earth did that Vagan make an EMP pulse that powerful?]**_ And one that from what she saw ignored other electronic equipment too! A pulse powerful enough to knock out a Gundam should have been the equivalent of a solar flare for regular machinery, and yet from what she saw life continued. Televisions still received signals, vehicles were still active, and the communications network for this colony was still online. _**[It just baffles the mind!]**_ She couldn't think about that though; in a few minutes she and the two would be on the road once again. If this Vagan mech was like the ones that sunk, Angel, Nora, and Tordia, then it would have multiple transformations and be better on one terrain and almost terrible in the other. Balancing their weapon's capabilities seemed impossible for Vagans, just like common sense. _**[Just a bit more and hopefully we can put this to an end.]**_ She failed Flit and Asemu, she would not fail a third time!


End file.
